Table Of Contenti
“Equal
to
All
Alike”:
A
Cultural
History
of
the
Viol
Consort
in
England,
c.1550-‐1675
Loren
Monte
Ludwig
Amherst,
MA
Bachelor
of
Music,
Oberlin
College
Conservatory,
1999
Certificaat,
Het
Koninklijk
Conservatorium
Den
Haag,
2001
A
Dissertation
presented
to
the
Graduate
Faculty
of
the
University
of
Virginia
in
Candidacy
for
the
Degree
of
Doctor
of
Philosophy
of
Fine
Arts
McIntire
Department
of
Music
University
of
Virginia
May,
2011
Professor
Bruce
W.
Holsinger,
Advisor
Associate
Professor
Fred
E.
Maus
Associate
Professor
Richard
J.
Will
Professor Katharine
E.
Maus
ii
Abstract
“Equal
to
All
Alike”:
A
Cultural
History
of
the
Viol
Consort
in
England,
c.1550-‐
1675
explores
the
socially
interactive
nature
of
amateur
chamber
music
for
viol
consort,
a
repertory
of
ensemble
music
that
flourished
in
16th-‐
and
17th-‐century
English
aristocratic
circles.
A
critical
reevaluation
of
surviving
archival
and
musical
materials
from
the
period
reveals
that
musical
relationships
between
polyphonic
parts
were
easily
and
readily
transposed
onto
the
social
relationships
between
the
living,
breathing
musicians
who
performed
them.
This
dissertation
is
about
those
relationships—how
composers
of
consort
music
used
polyphonic
means
to
choreograph
social
interactions,
how
early
modern
enthusiasts
might
have
understood
such
experiences
of
musical
community,
and
what
cultural
historians
can
learn
about
Renaissance
English
culture
from
the
consort
tradition.
Close
readings
of
consort
music
by
William
Byrd,
John
Dowland,
Richard
Farrant,
Thomas
Greaves,
Benjamin
Rogers,
John
Ward,
William
Lawes,
and
William
White
ground
discussions
of
the
ways
that
consort
music,
as
a
communal
activity
and
musical
tradition,
participated
in
early
modern
understandings
of
the
relationship
between
language
and
music,
the
nature
and
propriety
of
the
passions,
and
the
negotiation
of
social
intimacy.
Each
of
four
chapters
locates
the
consort
tradition
within
a
particular
affective
domain,
seeking
to
understand
how
consort
playing
engaged
and
shaped
communal
emotional
experience.
“Melancholy,
Mourning,
and
Mimesis:
The
Viol
Consort
and
English
Sadness”
positions
the
ensemble
as
a
site
of
communal,
ritual
iii
behavior
that
registers
the
two
related
terms
of
Elizabethan
“sadness”:
melancholy
and
mourning.
“‘These
things
were
never
made
for
words’:
‘Instrumental’
Wit
and
Performative
Self-‐Fashioning
in
the
Consort
Music
of
William
Lawes,”
theorizes
the
operation
of
“wit”
and
musical
rhetoric
in
the
fantasias
of
William
Lawes
(1602-‐
1645).
“‘In
Voice,
in
Heart,
in
Hand
Agree’:
Consort
Music,
Devotion,
and
‘Liturgical
Habitus’”
documents
consort
music’s
stylistic
and
cultural
bases
in
Catholic
liturgical
music
and
charts
its
adaptation
to
new
Protestant
devotional
practices
and
religious
values.
“‘Musique
fitting
for
the
place’:
The
(Homo)Eroticism
of
the
Viol
Consort”
addresses
consort
music’s
capacity
to
stage
interactions
of
pleasure,
intimacy,
and
power
among
its
performers
in
the
context
of
early
modern
conceptions
of
male
homosociality
and
homoeroticism.
iv
Acknowledgements
This
dissertation
was
supported
by
grants
and
fellowships
from
the
University
of
Virginia
Graduate
School
of
Arts
and
Sciences,
the
UVA
McIntire
Department
of
Music,
the
Andrew
W.
Mellon
Foundation
in
collaboration
with
the
Institute
for
Historical
Research,
Senate
House,
London,
the
American
Musicological
Society,
and
the
Viola
da
Gamba
Society
of
America.
Many
individuals
shared
their
expertise,
time,
patience,
and
support
with
me
as
I
worked
on
this
project.
I
am
deeply
grateful.
In
particular,
I
would
like
to
thank
my
adviser,
Bruce
Holsinger,
and
the
other
members
of
my
committee,
Fred
Maus,
Katharine
Maus,
and
Richard
Will;
my
teachers
and
colleagues
in
the
University
of
Virginia’s
Critical
and
Comparative
Studies
in
Music
graduate
program;
the
library
staff
of
the
UVA
music
library,
including
Erin
Maywood,
Winston
Barham,
Rya
Martin,
and
Pam
Howie
and
the
Alderman
Interlibrary
Loan
guru
Lew
Purifoy;
the
numerous
scholars
who
offered
ideas,
assistance
and
encouragement
including
Elisabeth
Le
Guin,
Linda
Austern,
Andrew
Ashbee,
David
Pinto,
Anna
Sieben,
Bonnie
Gordon,
Steven
Plank,
Edwina
Cruise,
and
Doug
Freundlich;
my
friends
and
colleagues
who
play
consort
music,
especially
Marie
Dalby,
Toby
Szuts,
and
Brady
Lanier
(with
whom
I
perform
in
the
viol
consort
Quaver),
Liam
Byrne,
Laura
Vaughan,
Mary
Springfels,
Brent
Wissick,
Tina
Chancey,
Dorothea
Müller,
Catharina
Meints,
James
Caldwell,
Alice
Robbins,
Mary
Anne
Ballard,
Ken
Slowik,
Sarah
Mead,
Laurie
Rabut,
Larry
Lipnik,
and
Simon
Peterken
and
many
others;
friends
and
musical
collaborators
including
Adriana
Contino,
Emily
Eagen,
Cleek
Schrey,
Spiff
Wiegand,
Adriane
Post,
Annette
Bauer,
Stephen
Nachmanovich,
and
Matt
Wyatt;
my
inspiring
and
loving
friends
and,
of
course,
my
family,
Josette,
Robert,
Tobin,
Stephen,
and
Joan.
v
Contents
I.
Introduction
1
Polyphonic
sociality
5
Thomas
Mace’s
Musick’s
Monument
(1676)
6
Performance
and
“embodied”
musicology
12
Habitus
20
Chapter
summaries
23
II.
Melancholy,
Mourning,
and
Mimesis:
The
Viol
Consort
and
31
English
Sadness
The
consort
song
41
Elizabethan
melancholy
and
The
Paradise
of
Daynty
Devices
44
Richard
Farrant’s
“Ah,
alas
you
salt
sea
gods”
51
Grief,
mourning,
and
Protestant
Injunction
62
The
“untimely
death
of
Prince
Henry”
67
John
Ward’s
“Weep
forth
your
teares”
72
III.
“These
things
were
never
made
for
words”:
“Instrumental”
Wit
and
92
Performative
Self-‐Fashioning
in
the
Consort
Music
of
William
Lawes
Lawes’
G-‐minor
Aire,
VDGS
337
96
Wit
and
performative
self-‐fashioning
103
The
rhetoric
of
“instrumental”
wit
109
Lawes’
C-‐major
fantasy,
VdGS
81
115
Wit
and
rules
123
Lawes’
a-‐minor
fantasy,
VdGS
72
126
IV.
“In
Voice,
in
Heart,
in
Hand
Agree”:
Consort
Music,
Devotion,
and
135
“Liturgical
Habitus”
The
consort
song
and
delegation
of
devotional
voice
138
Byrd’s
Catholic
songs
and
the
domestication
of
the
viol
consort
148
The
“liturgical”
origins
of
the
consort
repertory
153
The
archaic
cantus
firmus
and
the
pedagogy
of
the
“plainsong”
canon
157
The
cantus
firmus
as
spiritual
symbol
171
The
In
nomine
and
“liturgical
habitus”
178
Signification,
the
“dittie,”
and
the
suitability
of
instruments
in
worship
187
The
anthem,
the
locus
amoenus,
and
Ingelo’s
Bentivolio
and
Urania
193
V.
“Musique
fitting
for
the
place”:
The
(Homo)Eroticism
of
the
Viol
211
Consort
The
Viol
as
(Homo)Erotic
Symbol
219
John
Ward
and
the
Musical
Erotics
of
the
Madrigal
231
John
Ward’s
“Oxford”
Fantasia
I
(VdGS
no.
21)
242
William
White,
Imitation,
and
Musical
“Equality”
250
Thomas
Mace,
“Roguish”
Tailors,
and
a
Defense
of
the
Consort
265
Bibliography
271
1
I
Introduction
“[When]
the
Consort
[is]
compleat...the
ear
is
pleased
with
the
Harmony,
and
the
mind
is
amused
and
entertained
to
observe
the
particular
Parts
how
they
dance
to
and
from
the
Key,
and
from
one
Key
to
another,
how
they
hunt
one
another,
and
in
a
manner
imitate
humane
passions.”1
The
“consort”
to
which
Francis
North
(1637-‐1685)
refers
in
his
1677
treatise
is
a
small
ensemble
of
violas
da
gamba,
or
“viols,”
stringed
instruments
favored
by
amateur
musicians
in
England
during
the
sixteenth
and
seventeenth
centuries.
North’s
account
registers
the
playful
sociality
of
the
consort—the
idea
that
its
counterpoint
models
the
social
interactions
of
its
players,
that
the
different
musical
voices
“…hunt
one
another,
and
in
a
manner
imitate
humane
passions.”
For
North,
musical
relationships
between
polyphonic
parts
were
easily
and
readily
transposed
onto
the
social
relationships
between
the
living,
breathing
musicians
who
performed
them.
This
dissertation
is
about
those
relationships—the
ways
in
which
consort
music
uses
polyphonic
means
to
choreograph
social
interactions,
the
ways
that
early
modern
enthusiasts
might
have
understood
such
experiences
of
musical
community,
and
what
cultural
historians
can
learn
about
Renaissance
English
culture
from
the
consort
tradition.
1
North,
F.,
A
Philosophical
Essay
of
Musick.
1676,
London.
p.
32
2
During
its
ascendency
as
a
favorite
musical
pastime
(roughly
1550-‐1675),
consort
music
enlivened
the
music
rooms
of
the
houses
of
the
English
aristocracy.
Seated
in
a
circle,
enthusiasts
like
Francis
North—and
perhaps
a
few
visiting
or
employed
professional
musicians—played
elaborate
polyphony
using
a
“chest”
of
treble,
tenor,
and
bass
viols
(accompanied,
sometimes,
by
an
organ).
The
imitative
fantasias,
In
nomines,
madrigals,
motets,
consort
songs,
and
dances
that
make
up
the
repertory
are
generally
accessible
enough
to
be
played
by
cultivated
amateurs
and
represent,
with
their
lush
harmony
and
nuanced
partwriting,
a
touchstone
of
Renaissance
polyphony.
Consort
music
was
rarely
performed
in
public,
but
was
enjoyed
as
a
musical
activity
for
participants
and—sometimes—a
handful
of
select
auditors.
The
repertory
was
rarely
printed
but
rather
circulated
in
manuscript
partbook
anthologies,
often
subsequently
named
after
the
households
of
their
origin
(the
Shirley
partbooks,
the
Dow
partbooks,
the
Hamond
partbooks,
etc.).
Modern
scholars
have
identified
and
edited
most
of
the
known
consort
repertory
to
supply
the
lively
community
of
contemporary
amateur
consort
enthusiasts
in
Britain,
the
US,
and
Japan.
Though
it
was
primarily
music
for
amateurs—a
term
that
suggested
aristocratic
status
and
the
Latin
amatorem
(“lover
of”)
more
strongly
than
its
modern
connotation
of
inexpertness—consort
music
was
composed
by
professional—or
at
least
highly-‐trained—musicians.
Some
composers,
such
as
John
Ward
(1571–1638)
and
William
Lawes
(1602-‐1645),
were
born
into
(or
adopted)
gentlemanly
status,
but
most
trained
as
choristers
and
grew
up
to
be
employed
by
the
church,
Court,
or
the
lavish
musical
establishments
of
the
wealthy
aristocracy.
In
3
The
Early
History
of
the
Viol
(1984),
Ian
Woodfield
chronicles
the
role
of
the
instrument
in
the
musical
training
of
choristers
during—especially—the
second
half
of
the
sixteenth
century.2
In
choir
schools,
consort
music
was
used
to
teach
music
notation
(“pricksong”)
and
the
skills,
important
to
professional
singers
of
liturgical
music,
necessary
to
perform
complex
polyphony.
The
consort
song,
which
originated
as
the
accompaniment
to
dramatic
productions
staged
by
“children’s
companies”
of
choristers,
and
the
In
nomine,
a
compositional
form
with
strong
ties
to
chorister
pedagogy,
had
important
and
lasting
influence
on
the
stylistic
development
of
consort
music.
When
choristers
trained
on
viols
grew
up
and
took
their
places
as
composers,
performers,
and
teachers
of
aristocratic
amateurs,
they
brought
ensemble
music
for
viols
with
them
into
the
country
houses
and
music
rooms
of
the
their
patrons
and
employers.
Thus
the
viol
consort
is
associated
with
two
connected
but
distinct
worlds,
educational
choral
institutions
and
private
amateur
social
music
making.
Consort
music’s
formal
and
voice
leading
conventions
represent
an
inheritance
from
sixteenth
century
English
liturgical
polyphony—with
which
consort
music
coexisted
for
nearly
a
hundred
years—and
the
Italian
madrigal,
which
had
been
enthusiastically
adopted
by
English
musicians
at
the
end
of
the
sixteenth
century.
These
two
influences,
it
is
important
to
emphasize,
were
the
province
of
singers.
Several
centuries
of
musical
history
have
driven
a
wedge
between
the
domains
of
vocal
and
instrumental
music,
a
distinction
that
would
likely
have
puzzled
the
early
modern
performers
of
collections
of
music
that
were
2
See
also
Stephen
Morris’
M.A.
Thesis,
S.M.
Morris,
“Viol
Consorts
and
Music
Education
in
Elizabethan
and
Jacobean
England
(1558-‐1625)”
(Montreal:
McGill
University,
1986).
4
often
advertised
as
“apt
for
voyces
or
viols.”
Though
consort
music
represents
one
of
the
first
truly
“instrumental”
idioms,
it
remained
deeply
indebted
to
a
musical
sensibility
wedded
to
the
act
of
singing.
The
repertory
cannot
be
understood
without
careful
attention
to
the
vocal
forms—the
madrigals,
motets,
hymns,
consort
and
lute
songs,
anthems,
and
ayres—that
were
continuous
with
it,
a
point
that
I
explore
in
different
ways
in
each
chapter.
Even
the
fantasia,
that
“purely”
instrumental
form
for
consort,
reveals
phrase
lengths
consistent—in
most
cases—
with
lung
capacity
and
a
pitch
compass
coterminous
with
contemporaneous
vocal
ranges.
Line-‐level
details—the
easy
“singability”
of
most
imitative
points
as
well
as
their
tendency
to
evoke
syllabic
patterns
of
accent
and
contour
familiar
from
spoken
English
or
Italian,
or
the
use
of
call-‐and-‐response
templates
adapted
from
the
liturgy—are
suggestive
of
the
viol’s
role
as
a
sort
of
prosthetic
voice.
In
addition
to
its
close
relationship
to
English
and
Italian
vocal
idioms,
the
surviving
repertory
for
viol
consort
also
shows
other
musical
influences.
These
include
continental
forms
such
as
the
French
chanson,
English
“folk”
music
in
the
guise
of
tunes
like
“Browning”
and
“Walsingham”,
and,
of
course,
dance
music
and
instrumental
diminutions
from
England
and
the
continent.
But
the
consort
repertory
was
particularly
influenced
by
the
contrapuntal
rigor
developed
in
the
motet
and
madrigal,
and
it
is
consort
music
as
polyphony
that
is
the
primary
concern
of
this
dissertation.
5
Polyphonic
Sociality
One-‐on-‐a-‐part
polyphony
organizes
its
players
into
relationships
with
each
other
that
are
at
once
“musical”
and
“social.”
At
the
most
basic
level,
playing
viols
together
requires
performers
to
face
each
other,
to
make
eye
contact
or
demurely
glance
away,
to
smile
or
wink
conspiratorially
or
to
intimidate
with
a
show
of
impassivity
or
disinterest.
Instruments
introduce
issues
of
competency—how
“cunningly”
does
one
play
(to
borrow
an
early
modern
construction)?
Does
facility
demonstrate
mastery,
or
reveal
an
unseemly
professionalism?
Does
a
player
take
himself
too
seriously,
or
does
he
compromise
others’
enjoyment
by
missing
too
many
notes
or
being
too
careless
with
his
tuning?
Who
plays
bass?
Who
gets
to
play
“top”
treble—and
who
has
to
play
tenor?
As
anyone
who
has
tried
to
sort
viol
players
into
ensembles
at
a
summer
workshop
or
festival
can
tell
you,
consorts
are
political.
Polyphony
curates
this
same
social
energy—its
formal
and
voice
leading
conventions
channel
the
sociality
of
its
players
into
complex
and
stylized
interactions.
Imitation,
register,
textural
density,
dissonance
and
consonance,
rhythmic
activity,
syncopation,
homophony
versus
heterophony,
melodic
contour,
and
other
“musical”
phenomena
become
in
consort
music
dynamics
of
interaction
among
its
participants.
This
is
not
(just)
metaphor
and
homology.
An
imitative
entrance,
for
example,
actually
requires
people
to
imitate
each
other—both
the
bodily
motions
necessary
to
elicit
sound
from
the
viol
as
well
as
the
“rhetoric”
through
which
the
human
language
instinct
creates
a
sense
of
melody
from
an
Description:John Ward's “Oxford” Fantasia I (VdGS no. 21) is a small ensemble of violas da
gamba, or “viols,” stringed instruments No nights are dark enough for those.
